LETTER XXXIII.

WALKS IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

Furniture Rooms-Portable Pulpit-Invalid Bedstead and WashstandSelf-swinging Cot-New Room-Paper and Cloth-A Druidical ChairDevotional Chair-Iron Bedsteads-Self-propelling Chair-Manufacturing Rooms-Cotton Gin-Mules-Electric Telegraph-Sewing Machine ---Curvilinear Sawing.

LET us advance to the furniture room, and see what there is there that I am not very familiar with in America.

And the first thing I notice is a capital contrivance for itinerant preachers -one specially to be commended to the travelling apparatus of those settled ministers, who settle over new societies about every week. It consists of a portable self-supporting pulpit, with hand-rails for a stair-way, a platform to stand upon, and a silk table on which to lay a book, notes, &c. It is light, and when folded up may be taken under the arm of the pedestrian, and carried along till he feels moved by the Spirit to settle over some society, where he can re-pitch his pulpit, mount the rostrum, and hold forth till a new settlement is needed. The idea is certainly not a bad one- especially for street preaching, for field meetings, pic-nic assemblies,

&c. Who will patent and manufacture such an article of furniture in the United States?

Under this self-supporting pulpit is an invalid bed-carriage, for persons suffering from spinal complaints and other diseases, under the ravages of which they can travel only on beds in a recumbent posture.

By the side of this is a very pretty invalid's washstand, for the use of persons confined to beds, which may instantly be made to answer the purpose of a wash-stand or small table at their side.

Nor are these the only inventions for invalids. Here is a self-swinging cot for grown people, or a cradle for infants, which does its own rocking, and that in the gentlest and pleasantest manner.

By the side of this is a beautiful table at which a small family may take tea; after which it may be converted into a bedstead, wardrobe, suite of drawers,. sponge-bath, &c.

We must be pleased with this new kind of house paper. It is designed for the decoration of rooms, and so exactly represents wood, pressed like English oak, &c., that a beholder could hardly persuade himself that the walls and ceiling covered with it were not actually sheathed with beautiful grained wood, having raised figures upon them. Such paper will be in America before long.

This paper is not so rich as a cloth, about as wide and thin as paper, designed for the walls of apartments, which has the appearance of superfine cloth of various shades and colors. It must give a rich finish to rooms; and it is said costs no more than the best paper.

What old arm chair is that? The very one I should like to carry home to instal as my chair editorial. It is a library chair of black oak, almost as black as ebony, and

that has a very antique appearance. It was occupied by the Druids (Drew-ids ?) before our Saviour's time; for a label attached to it affirms that it was found near Doncaster in Yorkshire, where it is presumed to have been buried 2,000 years. Oh! that I could summon it to my sanctum, and seat one of my ancestral Druids in it.

If not permitted to have this ancient relic, I would be content with a modern chair standing near it, which is carved on the back and arms with Scriptural designs, intermixed and set off with cozy figures richly worked in fine wool of different colors.

The next article is one to be commended to all the friends of an old style devotion. It is a devotional chair of Irish bog oak, with a stool to kneel upon, and ornamented with two crystals termed the "Irish Diamonds." The panel on the back is of needlework; - if a worshipper could not be humble and pray there, why, then, he might pray by the help of less gorgeous furniture, if he could.

Iron bedsteads not Procrustean ones are becoming very common in England. They are elastic, as well as strong and light. Here is a folding one with brass hinges and legs, that makes a pretty ornament, as it folds up the bed on the wall of the room, and exposes a front as handsome as a polished brass bureau.

We like the plan of this self-propelling chair, made portable for travelling, and having vulcanized india-rubber wheels. An invalid in this can move himself about the room with ease; or a cripple can run with it on the highways almost as fast as a hand-car can go upon the railway. The inventor of this also exhibits an improved recumbent chair for invalids.

Let us now cross the principal nave, and visit some of the machinery rooms under the north gallery. All sorts of manufacturing is going on here. These rooms are as noisy as any other factories; but everything in them is exceedingly neat and orderly.

First we notice the Yankee Cotton Gin an invention of a Connecticut man, of the first importance to the world. It opens the pods, takes out the seed, and deposits the fibre in a body by itself, ready for picking and carding. Then comes another Yankee invention - the spinning mule of Mason, of Taunton. It moves its hundred spindles upon a line to the stationary spools, holds the warp as if by the finger, and recedes with it as fast as the warp is extended and spun into thread; then it advances again and commits the thread to the spools. It gratifies our national vanity to see so much Yankeeism in use amongst the British manufacturers.

Here too is an electric telegraph in operation, by means of which instant word may be sent to any part of the Palace, or out of it to the city, or the kingdom. And who does not know that to our own Yankee Morse the world is indebted for this invention? Nay, the application of steam power itself, to steam ships, rail cars, and machinery of all sorts, is another Yankee plan of our own Fulton. The English do not like to acknowledge this, because steam power was discovered before the days of Fulton; but we all know he was the first to harness that power, and break the creature in for the use of man.

A machine for printing calicoes, de laines, and other textile fabrics is in this department. It prints by one process a corresponding or varied pattern on each side of the cloth.

There is in the machinery rooms any number of improved steam engines, exhibiting professed improvements. Also printing machines—even for the manufacture and setting of the type, as well as taking the impression from them after they are set are abundant. They are here

in operation.

A machine is in motion for taking up and cutting blank paper, folding it as envelopes, and applying the gluten as a self-sealing property, and which turns out the finished envelopes as fast as a boy can seize and pile them up.

A drilling machine here is an excellent thing for quarrying-men and others engaged in blasting rocks.

Sewing machines are becoming common. They will yet, I fear, take the needlework out of the hands of our fair ladies. Here is one that is capable of sewing 500 stitches per minute. It does its work with great exactness, and alike on both sides. By means of it one female can make and deliver over to the ironer and presser six pairs of nice pantaloons per day. It is C. T. Judkins' Patent, of Manchester.

Spinning mules are of various sizes and powers. There are some hand mules, which need no steam power. By means of them a lady can spin a dozen threads at a time.

A ship's compass is on exhibition, which registers on paper the course a vessel may have been steering for the last twenty-four hours. Our ship-masters may be benefitted by this instrument.

Some of the screw-cutting machines, on wood or iron, may be worthy of being transported to the United States. We are not yet in the way of making iron screws to profit. This lathe is of very simple construction. By the side of it, is a separate set of screw stocks, dies, taps, &c., by